Warm Gnocchi Salad, Pulled Pork Tacos & Brazo De Mercedes - A wonderfully long lunch & a catch up with family

        Ryan and his cousin Dieter were close as kids, but as most kids do, they grow up and grow apart. Now that they are both adults they don't really see each other much and the only times we've ever seen him have been at birthday gatherings and funerals in the family. I think Ryan sees my cousins more than he sees his own. At the last few meet ups Ryan and Dieter kept saying 'we'll catch up sometime' or 'come over to my place and we'll have a BBQ' but then time passes by and being the laid back guys they are nothing really happens. So one day I sent a message to Dieter to get the ball rolling and we organised a catch up between the cousins (and partners too of course).

        Unfortunately Dieter's brother and his partner couldn't make lunch and Ryan's brother was hung over so it was just the four of us for lunch. The facebook invitiation did say BBQ but this was no ordinary BBQ with steaks and snags because we were lunching with two like minded food lovers. And it was an absolutely gorgeous Saturday for a long lazy lunch.

 

        Ryan and I turned up at Dieter and Alex's place with our hands full with our contributions to lunch. Ryan's dish was a warm gnocchi salad. I helped Ryan prepare his salad at my place and he rolled and cooked the gnocchi when we got there. He actually made the gnocchi dough the night before with my help (we had some for dinner) and made plenty enough to have with the salad and then some (we finished off what was left of the gnocchi again that night for dinner).

        Ryan has been experimenting recently and I think he has the got gnocchi making process spot on perfect. I am yet to get perfect little dumplings on my own (we do work better in pairs though.) You can follow recipes and read about gnocchi making as much as you can but it all comes down to hands on practice/experience, and learning to get the 'feel' for when it's right. Once you eat the little soft fluffy pillows of potato that are perfectly hand made and cooked gnocchi you will never want to go back to the packet stuff again. So it's quite disappointing when restaurants get the home made stuff wrong.

        Dieter and Alex have a Labrador called Oscar or 'Ozzy'. He is just absolutely gorgeous! But always seems to be in the way though.

        Ozzy also has a love for food just like his owners. Anything that dropped on the floor was quickly snatched up by him so you didn't really get a chance to sweep it up. We were told that recently he had to go on a diet because he was just getting too fat. Sounds like me ;).

        Dieter was cooking up some pulled pork for our lunch on his 'big green egg' bbq and let's me have a sticky beak (and to also check on it).

He also made some soft tacos for the pulled pork.

        The pork needs a bit more cooking time so we decide to have Ryan's salad first as our first course since it's ready (and because we were all getting a little hungry and it was getting late). The salad includes spinach, mushroom, nashi pear (my little addition), baby bocconcini, fried haloumi and Ryan's pan fried gnocchi. The salad dressing is a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard and truffle oil. The idea came from a recipe he found but was adapted to our taste. Everything worked well in this salad, all the flavours really combined well and there were the different textures, oh and fried haloumi!. Dieter and Alex had nothing but praise for Ryan's salad =).

After the salad Dieter makes the tacos to go with our second course.

Ryan helps him cook them while D rolls out the dough.

        This little clay pot belonged to Alex's grandmother and apparantly has been sitting on the shelf unused because they didn't know what to do with it, until now - great thinking D!

        The pork is ready! Well as ready as can be because we needed (wanted) to eat it. D explains that he slept in so wasn't able to get it cooking as long as he wanted to and had to cook it on a higher heat to get it cooked in time for lunch which resulted in a slightly drier and firmer meat than he had liked it to be. 'That's okay, there's always next time' I tell him. And I'm counting on it! ;) Ryan and I wouldn't have known any better, we absolutely loved it.

Mmm we get a bit of crispy crackling as he pulls the pork apart.

Porky goodness!

The pork is drizzled in a little of the fat to help keep it moist.

        The pork is served with a huge variety of Korean side dishes and oysters a la momofuku bo ssam style. It's my first time eating pulled pork, and bo ssam.

Soft Taco 'shells' in the pot.

        Looking at this has got my mouth salivating now... There was no real order as in how you were suppose to eat this. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, some pulled pork, an oyster, sauce and wrap it up and take a bite. My hand was dripping in deliciousness pouring out from my little wraps. The pork was perfectly seasoned and the small bits of chopped crackling added a textural sensation when added with the other sides. You had sweet, savoury, tangy, all in one bite.

        And look at who wants in. Apparantly when he begs for food he'll come up and put his head in your lap. We're instructed to push him away with our elbows and tell him 'No'. I felt his head in my lap a couple of times.

        We help them clean up (and let out stomachs digest) before we dig into dessert. I made a Filipino dessert called Brazo De Mercedes, which is a meringue roll filled with egg yolk custard. I've made it once before but didn't do it justice so will do another post with my recent much better attempt. Alex offers us a whole range of teas to choose from which made me feel so spoilt (most households only have one or two tea choices or sometimes no choice apart from just 'tea'). I chose an Almond tea (which I think was the Twinnings brand) and it was delish, especially with my dessert. We are all absolutely stuffed but absolutely satisfied by the end of our lunch - epic food coma (for me anyway). Wish I had taken more (better) photos, but I just enjoyed standing around chatting, watching food being prepared, admiring the house, playing with their dog. 

       

        I am so glad that I had part in organising such a great lunch. It's funny how food brings people together, alot of our conversation did surround food, but it was just so natural, and you could just tell that we were food lovers as there was just so much passion in the conversation (and the fact that Dieter and I kept whipping out our cameras to take photos of the food). We did talk about other things too but things always came back to one topic ;). Ryan and I couldn't stop talking about the lunch for the rest of the weekend. It was just such great food, great company, and their house was absolutely gorgeous and so homey and inviting. It was just good to be on the other end of the meal, the one not hosting and cooking everything and then cleaning everything up afterwards. There was something about that afternoon that I can't quite find the right words to describe (I'm a crappy writer) but Ryan totally understands how I feel. It was just awesome. Thank you Dieter and Alex for having us over! We're definately looking forward to the next time we catch up again.

Grilled Chicken Wraps with Home Made Spring Onion Flat Bread (8th Jan)

         Everyone loves a wrap, you can fill them with anything you like, and even serve them DIY style where everyone can just make their own and put as much or as little in as they like. I was on a bit of a bread making frenzy when I made my home made burgers with brioche bun, and then the sweet cinnamon pretzels, also because I had some yeast that was close to expiry which needed to be used up. These were made during the time that my parents were overseas, so naturally being the elder sister I was in charge of getting everyone fed, and I'd like to think I fed them well while Mum and Dad were away. I'm also a fan of easy recipes, especially onces which I could cook from scratch but yet be simple enough that I didn't have to slave away all day in the kitchen, and this is one of them.

        Why spend money on a packet of tortillas or flat bread when you can make it yourself from scratch with no hidden additives and add whatever flavours you want to them. They're also great eaten freshly cooked. This recipe for flat bread comes from a great cookbook which uses only three or four ingredients per recipe. Some of the recipes do use premade or packaged basics but I generally use the book for inspiration as to what I could do with what I have on hand when I am stuck for time or want a quick/easy meal. I spotted this recipe for flat bread and thought it was perfect so I planned it into my day which also involved making those scrumptious pretzels too.

Recipe: Spring Onion Flatbread (adapted from: Best Eever Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook)

Ingredients

• 450g plain flour
• 1 sachet instant dried yeast
• 4 spring onions finely chopped
• 1 tsp (5g) salt
• 1 1/4 cups (300ml) warm water

        A stand mixer will make it easier but you can mix and kneed the dough by hand. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.

        Add the warm water to the flour mixture and mix to form soft, but not sticky dough. Attach a dough hook or turn out the dough onto the bench and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth.

         Return the dough to the bowl and cover with some plastic wrap and a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured bench. Divide the dough into approximately 16 balls (less if you want larger rounds).

         Roll each ball of dough into a round ball and then roll out into a flat round with a rolling pin.

        Heat a large fry pan on high and place a round in shaking off any excess flour, and cook for about 1 minute and then flipping it over and cooking for another 30 seconds or so, or until browned.

        I decided to fill my wraps with chicken, everybody loves chicken. I just marinated some chicken breast in whatever herbs and spices I had in the pantry, bit of paprika, ground chilli, cumin, can't remember exactly what the combination was but you can season it with whatever your favourites are. Cooked them on a griddle pan to get the nice charred effect.

        Sliced and layered with some lettuce, tomato and cucumber and a squeeze of sweet chilli sauce and we have some ultra tasty home made chicken wraps. I was actually suprised at how well they turned out, and they were an absolute hit with the sibblings and the boyfriend. I think the home made flat bread made all the difference though.

        I wasn't even thinking about plating presentation so they are looking a little plain. The great thing about these wraps is that you can customise them with whatever ingredients you want. I unfortunatley had to keep mine pretty simple as I was feeding 4 picky eaters, each one different to the other. But sometimes simple is best.

        After stuffing ourselves with the wraps for dinner, Ryan and I headed out into the city for Sydney Festival's First Night. I took my new camera out with me to play around with some night shots. This was Martin Place.

Some awesome drum performances.

Chifley Plaza glowing in blue.

A different perspective of Chifley Square.

DJ playing in Chifley Square.

        This was around the corner from Chifley Square, close to where Parliament House and the Sydney Hospital are. There were some street performers which is what everyone was crowded around. It was a fun night, out and about just soaking in the atmosphere.

Garlic Prawns with Orange and Fennel (Part 2 to Saturday Lunch)

        Who doesn't love prawns? Unless you're allergic to seafood, but then there's also those who don't like seafood, most of us though won't say no to some good prawns. For the big lunch get together which Ryan and I hosted on the weekend, I wanted to make an entree and a dessert. I know that I am good in the dessert department but didn't want to just make dessert. I didn't really count my thai pumpkin soup as a dish as that was more of a teaser before the main meal.

        As it was cold my mind eventually came to garlic prawns, I was thinking freshly cooked piping hot prawns in a nice garlic and prawn infused olive oil to go with the delicious bread that I bought. Then I thought that maybe garlic prawns are too boring so I would serve them on a bed of orange and fennel. Anyway things never go exactly as we plan.

        I headed over to Ryan early in the morning to start prepping for lunch and setting up everything. Ryan advises me that his Boeuf Bourguignon didn't seem quite right so we both try to think of ways to save it (post about that drama to come later). I then get started on doing my things (glaze chocolate tart, heat up soup, peel prawns, slice oranges, slice fennel, heat up bread, cook prawns, set up tables etc) while Ryan fixes his stew. Before I know it guests have started to arrive and I was only cutting through my oranges, the tables wern't even set up, prawns hadn't been peeled, fennel to be cut, and Ryan was in the shower!

        I know it was bad of us but boy were we glad to have helping hands. There was only one of Ryan and one of me to do everything that we had to do, and luckily we wern't actually providing all of the food. I discover the prawns which Mum gave me were also still frozen so after a few rinses under some water they were good to go. Thanks to the girls for helping me peel them!

        So the original inspiration came fram Shadi and Veronica from My Kitchen Rules (the QLD couple). I remember this combo and that the judges really liked it. I thought I would give it a go and try something different and out of my normal "comfort zone".  This is my own recipe though but using the same combination of flavours/ingredients I guess. I had to get Ryan to help me cook this though as I was busy running around doing other things. In summary, this is really as the title says, garlic prawns with orange and fennel. I got Ryan to sautee the prawns in some olive oil with some minced garlic and a few finely chopped chillies for some kick.

        The original intention was to keep the fennel raw and to just put the prawns over the top using the juices as a dressing. Ryan suggested that because it was cold, to quickly toss in the fennel and lightly warm it up. I think the oranges were also thrown in and quickly tossed through the pan juices. Seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper and this is the result of what we did. Something simple but yet full of flavour - sweet, savoury, spicy, though it did get cold by the time I got around to eating it. I'll definately do this again but refine the cooking process a little bit more.

Spicey Thai Pumpkin Soup (Part 1 to Saturday Lunch)

        This will begin a series of "behind the scenes" posts about the dishes that Ryan and I cooked for our "Just Because" lunch for some friends on Saturday. Between us we made 4 dishes out of the many that were served at lunch. My first dish was something I wanted to present as a little amuse bouche, something to warm up our guests on a wet cool day while they were standing around waiting for others to come or helping to set up. I was originally thinking a cream of corn soup which I found off the Taste website which I wanted to do, or I could have just made Neil Perry's creamed corn again =).

        Ryan actually wanted me to do a Thai pumpkin soup so I went about googling some ideas and playing on my own knowledge of Thai flavours and came up with my own rendition of a Spicey Thai Pumpkin Soup. I originally planned to serve them in little shot glasses but thought they were too small so opted for these plastic wine glasses instead. From the feedback going around on Saturday most people loved it though you can't please everyone as there were a few cups which were barely touched.

        I think this is the easiest dish that I have ever cooked, also the cheapest as all I had to buy was a pumpkin because all the other ingredients were things readily available in my house. So the ingredients are, a whole pumpkin (butternut preferred), vegetable stock (I used what was left in the fridge which was only about a cup or so making my soup really thick, I suggest about 500 mls or even more if you want it thinner and soupy), coconut cream (I used half a can here), ginger, garlic, onion (mum had some pre chopped in the fridge), a couple of chillies (from the freezer), red curry paste (about 2 tablespoons, had some leftover which I had made from scratch) and some coriander to garnish. 

        Sautee the diced onion, minced garlic, finely chopped garlic and chilli until the onion is translucent then add the diced pumpkin (the smaller the quicker it will cook) and few tablespoons of red curry paste (depending how spicey you want it) and keep cooking for a couple of minutes to fry off the curry paste. Add your stock and cook on medium-high heat until the pumpkin is cooked through.

        Once cooked, transfer the pumpkin to a blender and blend in batches with some coconut cream. Pour it into a saucepan and once all the pumpkin has been pureed put it back onto the heat and season with some salt and also a teaspoon or two of sugar to balance the flavours out.

        I've made regular pumpkin soup many many times before, especially in winter, to take to work and stuff and I think that because I kept making it the same way and eating so much of it I've been slightly turned off by the thought of pumpkin soup now. The addition of the curry paste, coconut cream and all the other ingredients really does give this humble soup quite a good kick.

        The combination of pumpkin and coconut cream actually takes me back to my childhood, when mum used to always cook a chunky pumpkin and coconut cream soup to eat with rice at dinner time. Her version was a prawn/pork broth with large pieces of pumpkin and sometimes she would add some minced pork and dried shrimp to it too. I would find myself just mashing up the pumpkin and coconut flavoured broth and mixing it through my rice turning it all orange and eating it just as it is. Mum has stopped adding coconut cream to this soup over the years though possibly due to health concerns but I miss it. This soup brings me back to those days but with a more evolved taste sensation. It probably would have been a little bit on the too spicey side for my young taste buds at that time.

        Ryan absolutely loved my soup and said to me yesterday that he was craving for some more and that the little serve he got on Saturday was just not enough for him to appreciate the flavour of the soup. So today I went and bought a pumpkin and thought I would make it again. I added more stock and coconut cream but found that it was still quite thick. I don't mind though as I love my soups thick (depending on what it is though). Also I used the last of my red curry paste to make the first batch I used the curry paste I made for Massaman curry I had in the freezer which worked fine.

        This soup had a much more intense flavour and slightly spicier than the first batch (possibly because I added more curry paste too hehe), I couldn't help but lick all the spoons and even the pot and ran my finger down the sides of the blender to not waste a single drop. That's how much I loved this soup! =D

** Oh and I just realised it's been 3 months since I started this thing, feels like I've been doing it for ages! Maybe because I've been taking photos of my cooking/food for so long already. Happy 3 months bloggy!**

Corn "Pikelets" with Sausage & Tomato "Salsa" - Alfresco dining at home (Jan 2010)

        It's a warm Summer Saturday and Ryan wants to cook me dinner as I've had a bit of a stressful day. I love the long days of summer and the extended daylight. Ryan's house also has a gorgeous backyard is also perfect for entertaining which Ryan and I took advantage of a couple of years ago when we hosted a Boxing Day bbq for 50 of our friends, that was one hectic day. He decides to cook dinner in the backyard on the bbq/burner to avoid making too much mess in the kitchen. (Ryan is an extremely messy cook and his mum can't handle the amount of mess he makes in the kitchen whenever he cooks, it stresses her out. The newly renovated flashy kitchen doesn't get utilised enough in my opinion). The back porch was also a lovely place to be having dinner in the midst of Summer.

        Ryan bought me an Olympus DSLR camera for Christmas and as I've barely had any time to test it out I decided to bring it over to play with. I love the salt and pepper grinders that they have.

Cool shot of the flour.

        Ryan decided to make "Corn Pikelets with Tomato Salsa". At first he wouldn't tell me where he got the inspiration/recipe from but he eventually told me he found it on the Taste website (what a good boy he's using my resources hehe). After some searching I found the recipe for it and discover some minor adjustments he's made.

Instead of buttermilk he uses Carnation evaporated milk.

Love fresh corn!

        How cute are these pork sausages. Ryan's additiion, don't think he can ever be a vegetarian.

Random flower in the backyard, testing out the camera.

        Previous post I mentioned Ryan's mum collects odd things, here's another example.

Random photo snuck in of Ryan cooking.

Caught out! Haha he decides to eat the remaining corn on the cob.

"Pikelet" mixture.

Some random plant in the garden.

My contribution to dinner, LOVE LOVE LOVE!

        I had made some lemon vodka a couple of weeks before this and liked it so much I made some more. Can't remember where the recipe came from but it's pretty much lots and lots of fresh lemon juice plus sugar and vodka, serve it diluted with some soda water. It gets addictive.

        This is the "Salsa" of tomato, onion, pork sausage and mint. Ryan says he bought basil but as soon as I pulled it out of the bag I knew it wasn't basil hehe.

        The pikelets are more like pancakes. They were nice and fluffy and the sweet corn was a good contrast to the savoury topping. Almost like corn cakes.

Innards shot.

        Ryan and his family absolutely love Leche Flan. What is a Leche Flan? It's pretty much a Filipino version of Creme Caramel but made with lots of egg yolk and sweetened condensed milk, almost similar to the Vietnamese version which is called "Kem Flan" or in english translation Creme Flan? I don't know but something I do know is I love Creme Caramel too! Trying to impress I give the Leche Flan a go, I googled a recipe and picked the first one that sounded okay. My caramel was a little thick so there was a layer of toffee/hardened caramel at the bottom of the ramekin which also caught the bottom of the custard a little. It was also a little dark which gave a very very slight bitter taste. Overall though Ryan said I was very very close. I'd like to try making it again but I am a little scared of the amount of egg yolks used, I don't know if I am ready to make macarons again!